Extreme carbon monoxide pollution of the atmospheric boundary layer in Moscow region in the summer of 2010

Abstract

Using data of spectroscopic measurements in Moscow and Moscow region and data of ecological monitoring from Ostankino TV Tower, it has been found that, in the period of intense smoke blanketing of the atmosphere in summer 2010 due to large-scale forest-peat fires on the territory of the European part of the Russian Federation, the carbon monoxide content in the boundary layer and in the atmospheric depth of Moscow region reached the extremely high level of 8 g/m2, or 17 ×1018 mol/cm2, and the carbon monoxide concentration in the near-ground atmospheric layer increased to 37.5 mg/m3, i.e., an unprecedentedly large value for Moscow and more than a factor of 7 larger than the one-time maximum permissible concentration for carbon monoxide MPCot = 5 mg/m3. In the first decade of August, when intense smoke blanketing of the Moscow region was observed, the average carbon monoxide concentrations varied in the range from approximately 3 to 7 m/g3, i.e., an order of magnitude larger than the annual average concentrations calculated according to data of measurements in 2009. The probabilities of exceeding MPCot and multiples of MPCot are calculated. Analysis of data of thermal sensing showed that an important feature of the atmospheric boundary layer over the city was a high stability of the lower atmospheric layer with the thickness of 150–200 m, and also long-term nighttime and morning inversions of the air temperature in this layer.